«

On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:44:58 -0700, Patricia Shanahan wrote:

> I'm looking for an open source project to join. I want to get back to
> the challenge of non-trivial programming. After years of solo work on my
> dissertation research, I would like to be part of a team. Also, just
> doing programming exercises to keep my hand in seems a waste of my
> skills.
>
> My main requirement is an active project, with a team that works
> together, and multiple users outside the team. I am willing learn any
> required programming languages or libraries, though I am currently most
> fluent in Java.
>
> I have 32 years experience in the computer industry, including work on
> compilers, operating systems, and multiprocessor computer architecture.
> I completed my Ph.D. in computer science at UCSD last December, with a
> 4.0 GPA on the coursework.
>
> I would contribute to a suitable project in whatever way would be most
> useful, including programming and bug fixing, but the more technical
> challenge the better.
>
> Any recommendations?

Seriously, I think the interesting places for Java programmers to play at
the moment are mostly on Android; that's where there is a ferment of
rapidly developing new ideas, the way there was on server side web stuff
ten years ago.

Or go for fundamental utility stuff, like Apache Commons, which is used
by a lot of other things (but there you're joining a well established
team with established reputations and hierarchies).

--

;; Semper in faecibus sumus, sole profundam variat

* Patricia Shanahan, on 21.06.2010 21:22:
> Simon Brooke wrote:
>> On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:44:58 -0700, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
>>
>>> I'm looking for an open source project to join. I want to get back to
>>> the challenge of non-trivial programming. After years of solo work on my
>>> dissertation research, I would like to be part of a team. Also, just
>>> doing programming exercises to keep my hand in seems a waste of my
>>> skills.
>>>
>>> My main requirement is an active project, with a team that works
>>> together, and multiple users outside the team. I am willing learn any
>>> required programming languages or libraries, though I am currently most
>>> fluent in Java.
>>>
>>> I have 32 years experience in the computer industry, including work on
>>> compilers, operating systems, and multiprocessor computer architecture.
>>> I completed my Ph.D. in computer science at UCSD last December, with a
>>> 4.0 GPA on the coursework.
>>>
>>> I would contribute to a suitable project in whatever way would be most
>>> useful, including programming and bug fixing, but the more technical
>>> challenge the better.
>>>
>>> Any recommendations?
>>
>> Seriously, I think the interesting places for Java programmers to play
>> at the moment are mostly on Android; that's where there is a ferment
>> of rapidly developing new ideas, the way there was on server side web
>> stuff ten years ago.
>
> That's an interesting area to look at. My research was in the area of
> ubiquitous computing, so there might be a tie in.
>
>>
>> Or go for fundamental utility stuff, like Apache Commons, which is
>> used by a lot of other things (but there you're joining a well
>> established team with established reputations and hierarchies).
>
> If anything, a well established team is a positive, not a negative. My
> attitude to technical leadership is "Been there, done that." I would
> prefer a project where someone else is already dealing with the
> organizational hassles, and I can just do some fun problem solving.

With Thunderbird 3.0 the Mozilla folks introduced a lot of undesirable
functionality, in particular messing up quoting. When you quote source code, and
the original message has "flowed" text format (this is where a space at the end
of line indicates a continuing paragraph), then the beast now collapses every
sequence of spaces to a single space, except indentation, which it removes
completely. It's merely Very Bad for quoting C++. It's completely unaccceptable
for quoting Python, where indentation is significant.

If you could join that team and fix (read: remove) this single, uh, "feature",
the World would be forever in your debt!

Not sure what languages they use. JavaScript and C, but possibly also others.


Cheers,

- Alf

--
blog at <url: http://alfps.wordpress.com>

On 06/21/2010 04:36 PM, Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet wrote:
> * Patricia Shanahan, on 21.06.2010 21:22:
> Not sure what languages they use. JavaScript and C, but possibly also
> others.

C++, not C. Although libmime would probably compile with a C compiler if
you s/class/struct/g ...

--
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
tried it. -- Donald E. Knuth

On 6/21/2010 3:22 PM, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
> Simon Brooke wrote:
>>
>> Seriously, I think the interesting places for Java programmers to play
>> at the moment are mostly on Android; that's where there is a ferment
>> of rapidly developing new ideas, the way there was on server side web
>> stuff ten years ago.
>
> That's an interesting area to look at. My research was in the area of
> ubiquitous computing, so there might be a tie in.
>

Ah, find a smart dust project. With the current problems in the Gulf of
Mexico someone will be needed to keep us out of the grey goo.

On 6/21/2010 9:34 PM, Jeff Higgins wrote:
> On 6/21/2010 3:22 PM, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
>> Simon Brooke wrote:
>>>
>>> Seriously, I think the interesting places for Java programmers to play
>>> at the moment are mostly on Android; that's where there is a ferment
>>> of rapidly developing new ideas, the way there was on server side web
>>> stuff ten years ago.
>>
>> That's an interesting area to look at. My research was in the area of
>> ubiquitous computing, so there might be a tie in.
>>
>
> Ah, find a smart dust project. With the current problems in the Gulf of
> Mexico someone will be needed to keep us out of the grey goo.
>
<http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/related.html>

"Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet" <alf.p.steinbach+> writes:

> * Patricia Shanahan, on 21.06.2010 21:22:
>> Simon Brooke wrote:
>>> On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:44:58 -0700, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm looking for an open source project to join. I want to get back to
>>>> the challenge of non-trivial programming. After years of solo work on my
>>>> dissertation research, I would like to be part of a team. Also, just
>>>> doing programming exercises to keep my hand in seems a waste of my
>>>> skills.
>
> With Thunderbird 3.0 the Mozilla folks introduced a lot of undesirable
> functionality, in particular messing up quoting. When you quote source
> code, and the original message has "flowed" text format (this is where
> a space at the end of line indicates a continuing paragraph), then the
> beast now collapses every sequence of spaces to a single space, except
> indentation, which it removes completely. It's merely Very Bad for
> quoting C++. It's completely unaccceptable for quoting Python, where
> indentation is significant.

Modify python to remove the signifiance of spaces. One good solution
would be to use parentheses.

--
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/

On 22-06-2010 04:19, Pascal J. Bourguignon wrote:
> "Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet"<alf.p.steinbach+> writes:
>> * Patricia Shanahan, on 21.06.2010 21:22:
>>> Simon Brooke wrote:
>>>> On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:44:58 -0700, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm looking for an open source project to join. I want to get back to
>>>>> the challenge of non-trivial programming. After years of solo work on my
>>>>> dissertation research, I would like to be part of a team. Also, just
>>>>> doing programming exercises to keep my hand in seems a waste of my
>>>>> skills.
>>
>> With Thunderbird 3.0 the Mozilla folks introduced a lot of undesirable
>> functionality, in particular messing up quoting. When you quote source
>> code, and the original message has "flowed" text format (this is where
>> a space at the end of line indicates a continuing paragraph), then the
>> beast now collapses every sequence of spaces to a single space, except
>> indentation, which it removes completely. It's merely Very Bad for
>> quoting C++. It's completely unaccceptable for quoting Python, where
>> indentation is significant.
>
> Modify python to remove the signifiance of spaces. One good solution
> would be to use parentheses.

Then it would not be Python.

(I am rather sure that the BDFL will not approve the change)

Arne

On Jun 22, 9:19*am, p...@informatimago.com (Pascal J. Bourguignon)
wrote:

> Modify python to remove the signifiance of spaces. *One good solution
> would be to use parentheses.

Or Modify C++ to use significant indentation rather than braces..

I was going to suggest.. writing a non-ambiguous definition of an
rvalue reference but that work has been going on intensively ( and
quite comically ) for 5 years with no significant progress to
date..

regards
Andy Little